1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of discs, and more particularly, to a recording/reproducing method, a recording/reproducing apparatus, an optical recording medium, and a computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for the recording/reproducing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent years have witnessed remarkable advances in optical recording techniques (i.e., techniques for recording data on optical discs). With these advances, various types of optical disc recording/reproducing apparatuses have been developed.
Write-once optical discs are a type of optical discs to which data can be written only once. For example, conventional compact disc-recordables (CD-Rs) and digital versatile disc-recordables (DVD-Rs) are forms of the write-once optical discs. Generally, in the write-once optical discs, a state of a recording layer is changed by applying heat to a predetermined area of the recording layer using laser light to form a recording mark.
Defect management involves re-writing user data, which has been recorded in a user data area where a defect is generated, thereby compensating for data loss otherwise caused by the generation of the defect. Conventionally, defect management is classified into defect management using a linear replacement method and defect management using a slipping replacement method. In the linear replacement method, an area of a user data area where a defect is generated is replaced with an area of a spare area where a defect is not generated. In the slipping replacement method, the area where a defect is generated is slipped without using such an area and a next area where a defect is not generated is used.
In the case of the linear replacement method, a block of the user data area where a defect is generated is called a defect block and the spare area, which is a space for a replacement block for replacement of the defect block, is provided in a predetermined area of a disc.
Since the write-once optical discs cannot be overwritten, defect management methods different from those in rewritable discs may be adopted. In the case of the write-once optical discs, the above-described defect management methods may or may not be used. Thus, there is a need for a method of using the write-once optical discs based on whether defect management is used or not.